Pre-order your copy of the Black Womb Omnibus Hardcover now! The Omnibus, which contains the novels Black Womb, Transformations in Pain, and Smoke and Mirrors will be on sale this April at Sci-Fi on the Rock 11 to celebrate Engen’s 10-year anniversary! Reserve your copy now and save $5.00 using the link below! Only available March 19-25 2017!

This promotion is closed!

To keep the title available throughout the 10th anniversary year, we are limiting the amount we bring to each convention! There will only be 10 copies for sale at Sci-Fi on the Rock 11, get yours while you can! 🙂

Longtime readers of Engen Books might remember when, in the early days of ashcan-like editions published in Pocket Paperback editions by Calgary-based printer Blitzprint, the back covers of the first five books in the Black Womb series looked like this one, on the left.

The covers were simple: plain black background with white text, title above. Sometimes issues with the printer made them faded and illegible — such are the woes of starting out in publishing. But while we’ve improved immensely, there are some things that have been lost along the way as we’ve gotten more polished: avant-garde ideas that traditional publishers wouldn’t try that made us stand out on the bookshelf. And that was, ironically enough, the back cover.

We had the interesting idea of not wasting the back cover with a hook or synopsis or out-of-context trailer to try and force the reader to buy: we wanted to bring them in with our storytelling ability and our sharp, witty dialog. So we did something very few other novels have done: we made the back cover a part of the story.

Instead of touting reviews or plots or spoilers, Engen back covers were short stories in and of themselves: short monologues written from the first-person (sometimes second-person) perspective of the characters within the story, as though they were being interviewed after-the-fact. Engen back covers didn’t waste space: we were given a venue to tell stories with, and we wanted to use every page and surface available to us to tell a story.

Smoke and Mirrors, the third novel in Matthew LeDrew’s Black Womb series is finally getting its international release, and with it comes one of the last of the updated covers, pictured left.

Originally published in 2009, Smoke and Mirrors tells the story of the trial of Adam Genblade, which brings closure to the men and women of Coral Beach… until people start showing up dead in the same manor they did when he was at large. Now his victims are forced to keep him alive in order to get their answers… or accept that it may not have been him to begin with.

The re-release of Engen titles produced under Calgary-based printer Blitzprint after the move to Lightning Source began in 2011, with the re-release of Ellen Curtis’s first collection of short fiction, Compendium. As of that time only Transformations in Pain, Smoke and Mirrors, Roulette, and Ghosts of the Past lacked mass-market paperback editions. Since then Transformation in Pain and Ghosts of the Past have been added, the latter at this year’s Sci-Fi on the Rock 9, leaving only the middle two remaining.

“The Kindle-editions really made getting the international editions a priority,” said Black Womb author Matthew LeDrew. “We’re about to expand into being able to reach a whole new audience, and we didn’t want there to be a big hole in the middle of the series narrative that was unavailable to them. That would have been marketing suicide.”

LeDrew went on to state that the international editions of Smoke and Mirrors and Roulette should have been released much sooner, but that the updates on them kept being pushed back in favor of producing new material.

The new cover to Roulette will be revealed soon, and international editions of both titles (and all active Engen titles) will be available internationally and on Kindle before the end of 2015.

There are only ten days left before the start of Newfoundland’s biggest science fiction convention! It’s the time of year again to get out your phasers and teleports for the third annual Sci-Fi on the Rock!

At the Engen table, Matthew LeDrew returns again this year to teach seminars on writing and publishing, as well as sign autographs and take part in the scheduled ‘author readings’ this year. He’s bringing back his two former successes Black Womb and Transformations in Pain, as well as introducing his newest novel, Smoke and Mirrors, to the general public.

Two authors that attended the writing / publishing seminars last year have already been published this year, so all young writers are encouraged to come!

NewFoundSpecFic will also be present at the con, with the various authors working in shifts to sign and greet fans. Try to collect them all!

Sci-Fi on the Rock III is being held at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s, Newfoundland. For more information, click here.

The approaching execution of Adam Genblade brings closure to the men and women of Coral Beach… until people start showing up dead in the same manor they did when he was at large. Now his victims are forced to keep him alive in order to get their answers… or accept that it may not have been him to begin with.

Smoke and Mirrors saw its release onto the market today, quenching fan anticipation that has been building for over a year.

The third book in Engen’s flagship series promises many revelations and twists, but none like the one the author made in announcing the launch of the book.

“We’re not going to be having one,” said Matthew LeDrew, author of the entire series including Black Womb and Transformations in Pain. “This one’s for the fans more than anything. We’re planning on getting bigger and better with our launches as time marches on, but with Smoke and Mirrors it seemed unnecessary.”

Market fluctuation and instability this quarter have led to the entire publication industry being in trouble. Several Canadian publishing companies have closed their doors in the past six months, but research shows that Engen will not be one of them.

“Direct sales have always been the lifeblood of this industry, so that’s what we’re going to be driving for with Smoke and Mirrors.” said LeDrew. “It’s a risky experiment, but we’re confident in it. It’s not one we’d attempt if we weren’t certain of the success of NewFoundSpecFic, also out this month.”

Smoke and Mirrors is currently available through the Engen Books Webstore and will be available in stores everywhere after the upcoming Sci-Fi on the Rock III convention.